The present invention relates generally to an information system, and more particularly to a system and method for providing access to an entity by context association.
Individuals and institutions are in constant need of information and access to each other and to services worldwide. This critical need for information and access is seemingly limitless and ever present as a consequence of technological advances in communication and connectivity. Nowhere in our society is this need more strongly felt and observed than by Internet and wireless telephony users everywhere.
For these reasons, directory assistance is one of the fastest growing segments of the traditional wireline telephone industry. Revenues have exceeded three billion dollars with an estimated call volume in excess of 8 billion inquiries per year. However, the traditional wireline industry is rapidly coming under competitive pressure for use and convenience form the wireless industry.
The cost of service for wireless communication is dramatically decreasing while the features provided are increasing. Wireless communication can provide nearly the same benefits as wireline at roughly the same cost. In addition, wireless communication can offer benefits that wireline cannot. These include 24-hour access in any location, insignificant or non-existent long distance and roaming fees, and in some cases number portability.
The problem with wireless communication that is addressed by the present invention is that there is currently no method for cellular subscribers to access the number of another cellular subscriber. This is a significant problem, since wireless service providers have seen the number of domestic subscribers increase to the current 72 million, all without a listing in a directory assistance. Wireless subscribers include traveling professionals, small independent business people, parents, children and xe2x80x9cnomadicxe2x80x9d students, each with specific needs for connectivity and information, but all of which are entirely inaccessible to the general population unless an information source is developed.
Another problem with telephone directories is obtaining the desired number of the person or company you wanted with limited information. In 1997 ATandT introduced OOInfo. This service was exclusive to ATandT customers only as an alternative to existing directory services such as xe2x80x9c411xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c555-1212xe2x80x9d and provided access to local and national numbers as well as address and zip code information. As an additional service, ATandT customers could search for a listing by just the spelling of the listing. In 1998 Sprint began to offer their customers national listings in over three thousand communities, and MCI introduced 10-10-9000 for both MCI and non-MCI customers.
Although these systems provide telephone number and some additional limited information, none provide directory access to wireless telephone subscribers and cannot provide subscriber selected information back to a caller or direct communication to the subscriber selected locations such as a home telephone, cell phone, email address or facsimile device.
The present invention solves the problem of providing access to an entity or services and may be applied to any system. The description of the invention for use in cellular directory assistance is for convenience and illustration of the features of the invention. It is to be understood that the invention has many embodiments and can be applied whenever access to an entity or services are needed.
In one embodiment, the invention solves the problem of cellular directory assistance and the need for subscriber directed telecommunication by providing wireline and wireless listing inquiries by means of a context association cellular directory assistance system for a nominal fee.
In one aspect of the invention, a cellular phone subscriber""s web-managed context association such as, but not limited to, an alpha numeric string, is used as a unique address to locate and provide information, access, or both to a calling subscriber. To place a call or provide access to the subscriber, the invention associates a subscriber with a cellular phone number by context association. The subscriber manages context associations on the web, with conventions that are established by each subscriber. The invention provides for selectable levels of security allowing the subscriber to determine access and identification at all times. In addition, companies or institutions can group subscribers into communities for internal or external access as required.
Each community can provide its own context associations for its subscribers, allowing them to be easily identified by pre-existing, or specifically created conventions. Other members of that community can therefore easily find a subscriber, which make up the subscriber""s calling universe or circle. Accordingly, the present invention goes beyond one-to-one relationships between a phone number and a user by providing contextual associations and relationships between a subscriber and its community.